Church purse thefts; Whitefish Bay police arrest man

Church purse thefts, Whitefish Bay police arrest man

The Whitefish Bay Police Department arrested a serial purse-snatcher who stole from Shorewood and Whitefish Bay parishioners.

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. - The Whitefish Bay Police Department arrested a serial purse-snatcher Thursday, March 2 after he tried to strike again at Holy Family and St. Monica Catholic Church.

Police said parishioners at the two churches alerted them, and officers arrested the man without incident.

FOX6 News first profiled the thief in January. Shorewood police said the man sat behind a woman who was praying at St Robert Church's Christmas Eve Mass. When she got up to receive communion, he stole her purse – phone, credit cards and $200 cash were gone with little evidence left behind.

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"We pray for the man after our Masses – the following Masses after that. We pray that he may find whatever he needs," Rev. Enrique Hernandez of St. Robert Church told FOX6 in January.

Also on Christmas Eve, Whitefish Bay police said the man pulled the same stunt at Holy Family Church – then again on New Year's Day at St. Monica Catholic Church.